How Hitler And The Nazis Manipulated The Berlin Olympics For Their Cause | The 1936 Olympic Games

August 1st, 1936 in Berlin, the capital of the Third Reich. This brand new monumental stadium is the theatre of the largest Nazi propaganda operation of all time. And yet, this giant ceremony is not a Nazi party convention. Today, to us, this image appears unthinkable. Three years before the Second World War will decimate Europe, Adolf Hitler watches his future enemies parade in front of him. The United States, England and France. Hypermediatised by the first televisions in history, this sombre spectacle was the accomplishment of a meticulously planned strategy to deceive the major world powers. It was a massive propaganda effort served by colossal means that allowed for the construction of a towering stadium in this luxurious Olympic village. A place that was specially dedicated to making foreign athletes into ambassadors of Nazism. As incredible as it can seem here, Jewish and black athletes participated. Nevertheless, loathed by the Nazis. We went to meet the daughter of one of these athletes. This young runner, Jesse Owens, publicly humiliated Hitler on his home turf with his victories. He won all the time. First of all, I think it was a surprise and amazing to most people. When he walked on the track, it was like just a roar. But the most rebellious athletes were systematically excluded. This is what happened to one of the last living participants of the time, Gretel Bergmann, a Jewish and German champion. They wouldn't let me compete. But whatever I did and I won, they didn't like because I was a Jew and I was supposed to be horrible. Anybody else had a story like this to tell. How did the Nazi regime deceive the leaders of the most powerful countries in the world into glorifying their war ideology in front of the world's cameras? The Olympic Games of 1936, an event that should celebrate peace between peoples, an event that would forever become a shameful stain in history. In 1931, when Germany was a candidate to host the Olympic Games, the Nazis were not yet in power. But the country, still recovering from the destruction of World War I, already carries the seeds of xenophobic extremism that allow hate to proliferate. Humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles, then pummeled by the stock market crash of 1929, Germany is on the brink of asphyxiation. Half of the population is jobless. The sanctions were heavy on the economic, financial and image level. This man tries to bring some relief to his country in the only way he can. He's not a politician, but simply a German Olympic Committee secretary. A former journalist, Karl Diem, accelerates forward with his vision. With the development of mass media, he sees that sports will soon pull in the passions of fans the world over. So in 1931, he does everything he can to convince this man, Henri de Baillé-Latour, the president of the CIO, to make Germany the host of the 1936 Games. Henri de Baillé-Latour is a Belgian count who succeeded the founder Pierre de Coubertin. He's an aristocrat from a wealthy Belgian family. He doesn't need to work. He's retired. He's married to a German woman. So he has a special bond with Germany. Against Barcelona's application, Baillé-Latour rules in favour of Berlin, a highly symbolic choice. A choice that he thinks will repair the post-war humiliation of Germany. It's in a logic of contribution to world peace. It's the CIO's discourse. It's the discourse according to which sports serve world peace. It's the fraternity, at least among the elites who meet at the stadium, and who must serve as a model for the people. But Karl Diem's vision will soon be thrown into chaos. January 30, 1933. Adolf Hitler is named Chancellor. He quickly grants himself full powers and suppresses all personal freedoms. The first concentration camp in history opens in Dachau, and there Hitler begins imprisoning his political opponents. The organisation of the Olympic Games that had been decided two years previously was the least of his worries. All the more, he did not play any sports and considered the Olympic Games to be a decadence. Karl Diem wanted to hold his Games at all costs, even if it meant confronting Hitler. He finds surprising support in his boss, Theodor Lewald, a Jew turned Protestant and the President of the German Olympic Committee. The meeting was held at the Chancellery of the Reich. Lewald and Diem faced Hitler. At their sides, listening attentively, was Josef Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda. Hitler had already made it clear that he was a warmonger ten years previously in his book Mein Kampf. In 1933, he already had in mind to hold the Games in Dachau, taking revenge on France and invading parts of Europe. But Germany was not yet ready. The German army was still being rebuilt and so the Fuhrer needed to gain time. For the moment, he prefers to pass as a leader for peace, and the Games arrive at a perfect time for his use. So, as early as April of 1933, he orders Josef Goebbels to coordinate a gigantic public relations operation. Six million Reichsmarks, which would be about 54 million euros today, are immediately put aside for the organization of the Games. In December 1933, the Fuhrer orders that a monumental stadium be built, a stadium that will be the biggest in the world. The propaganda begins to work. The enormous works are already impressing the media across the world. The folly of the Nazis' visions of grandeur did not stop there. On the outskirts of Berlin, the Fuhrer imagined a sumptuous Olympic village. Here, for 15 days, the athletes of the world over would live and train in state-of-the-art comfort. There were living rooms, 40 restaurants, showrooms, TV rooms, since we were going to broadcast a number of live events, a Finnish sauna, and a site that was really a paradise oasis. They tried to create an idyllic, picturesque village here. It was supposed to look like a grown-up German village. They also created this forest lake here. It was not a natural lake. Then they even brought water birds from the Berlin Zoo here, so that the whole thing should look really lively. In this way, they managed to present Germany in a very positive way, so that they should go home and tell what is possible here in Germany, what is offered here. But behind the scenes, the Nazis were already imposing their racist laws. A worrying mix of interests were operating there. The control of the Olympic village was given to a captain of the German army, Wolfgang Fürstner. He would live in this house among the athletes. The village was entirely financed by the Minister of War because the facility would later become a military camp after the Olympic Games. On the walls of the living rooms, Captain Fürstner had these military frescoes engraved. In the rest of Germany, the Nazis tightened their regime. The 15th of September 1935, less than one year before the official opening of the Games of Berlin, Hitler proclaims his Nuremberg Laws. Jews have their German citizenship taken away from them. Their stores are pillaged. They are excluded from all public employment. They are even refused entry to hospitals. Gretel Bergmann was 21 years old and just had been accepted into university in Berlin. Like hundreds of other Jewish students, the doors to her school were now closed to her. At night, because they weren't supposed to see the Jews. It was not a good time, believe me. It was horrible. Gretel is a huge fan of athleticism and particularly gifted in high jump. Promised a brilliant future in sports, she wins many awards. But the Nuremberg Laws kick her out of her club and prevent her from joining any other sports establishment in the country. So like many Jews, she decides to leave Germany. Her parents have just about the needed money to help her to do so. She leaves Germany alone. My parents decided I would go because there was no chance for me in Germany. I couldn't do any sports. I couldn't do anything. So I went to England and went to school there and I liked it. Except the English people weren't very friendly. But I was a German. No one escaped the Nuremberg Laws, even at the highest level. Even though he was the president of the Olympic Committee, Theodor Lewald, Karl Dehn's colleague, is pushed from power due to having Jewish parents. Wolfgang Fürstner, the loyal commander of the Olympic Village, had the same treatment. He did not even know that one of his distant relatives was Jewish. However, shortly before the opening of the Olympic Village, shortly before the completion, he was degraded. And a new commander was put in front of his nose. That was a free man by the name of Gilsa. In reality, it was about Hauptmann Fürstner having Jewish ancestors and that he was degraded because of this before Hitler came here on the 17th of June and opened the village. The commander would not tolerate this dishonor. Two days after the end of the Games, once the athletes had left, he shot himself in the head next to this lake in the middle of the Olympic Village. Facing a Germany plunged into terror, the president of the CIO, Henri de Baillelotour, took no action. The Olympic Committee, led by Vierge Farroucher, said, No, we are not doing politics. We have our own hands. We are apolitical. Circular, nothing to do with it. The situation of the Jews in Germany, the human rights in Germany, democracy in Germany, is not our problem. We are above all that. Berlin is the promise of great games. And that is the most expensive wish of the CIO, certainly. And another reason is that neither Baillelotour nor the members of the CIO in their majority are really hostile to the Nazi regime. Nobody moves. Nobody moves. We let them do it. We let them do it. It is precisely this laxist side that makes us say that we have been somewhat complicit and that the Olympic movement itself should have been suffocated. The first objectors made themselves heard, from the other side of the Atlantic. Dozens of sports leaders and American politicians sent letters calling for an Olympic boycott to the CIO. The Olympic Charter considers that there should be an absolute equality of races and beliefs in the domain of sport. It is the direct antithesis to the ideology of Nazis that makes racial inequality the cornerstone of their beliefs. Huge gatherings were organized in all the big American cities. In New York, the Madison Square Garden became the home for the thousands of protesters who gathered regularly to protest against Hitler's games. In November 1935, even a member of the American Olympic Committee, Ernest Lee Yanker, the son of German immigrants, publicly took position for the boycott in this letter addressed to the Count Bayer Latorre. Neither the Americans nor the representatives of other countries have to participate in the Nazi German Olympic Games without being conscient that in doing so they are condoning Nazi ideology and their sordid exploitation of the games. He is also condemned by Bayer Latorre who criticizes him for being political. Ernest Lee Yanker is excluded from the Olympic movement in a rare decision. He is replaced by a man who is far more compliant. Avery Brundage, an active member of two ultra-racist associations and who was also associated with the Ku Klux Klan, becomes the president of the American Olympic Committee. I find that the preparations are well along and I'm sure we'll be ready to receive the athletes of the world when they arrive a year from next November. With this nomination, the CIO tries to suppress the attempts at a boycott coming from the US. Meanwhile, the movement expands in Europe at the initiative of the communist organizations. February 1936. These same communists come to power in France with the Popular Front government led by Leon Blum. The question of the games in Germany divides the members of parliament. Noël Vandenot had attentively followed these debates. He was 12 years old at the time and in six months he was due to participate in the games with his uncles who were competing in rowing. The threat of a boycott gained momentum even up to the point when Germany finally finished their enormous Olympic construction works. The Nazis were in risk of losing their gargantuan propaganda operation that they had been preparing for three years. They desperately needed to project a respectable image of themselves. With a perfect understanding of the power of symbols, the Nazis turned towards the father of the Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the CIO that had also organized the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 40 years previously. In 1936, the ageing 73-year-old man lived his latter years in Lausanne, Switzerland, withdrawn. No one except Carl Dimm, who'd progressively become a supporter of Hitler. He goes to Lausanne on multiple occasions to meet Pierre de Coubertin. Seduced, Coubertin helps to legitimize the Games of Berlin that were played in Lausanne in 1936. It's a tribute to Hitler, but it's also a tribute to Coubertin, who was a great supporter of Hitler. He was a great supporter of Hitler. He did this by recording a message of support that Carl Dimm had played through radios across the globe. Hitler accepts Henri de Baillé-Latour's visit in Germany. He organizes a huge masquerade to hide the anti-Semite exactions of the ill-treatment of Jews. . All of the governments were deluded by Adolf Hitler's shallow promises. He begins to wipe all of the anti-Semite signs from Berlin before the arrival of the first visitors. The prohibitions on the Jewish people were also lifted, but only during the 15 days of the Olympic Games. And more importantly, he promises that there will be Jewish athletes in the German Olympic team. Gretel Bergmann, the young, exiled champion who'd left Germany for England, was forced to return. And they said she has to go back and compete for us. And then they called me back and I said, I'm not coming back and they threatened me, you better not come or your family's, you know, finished here. So I went back. The Nazis used Gretel Bergmann as their alibi in the eyes of the world as they made her participate in the qualifying rounds, all while maintaining a permanent surveillance over her. The injustices she faced just increased the young athlete's anger. During the qualification trials, she breaks the national high-jump record at 1.60m. She was performing too well, so Gretel Bergmann had become an annoyance for the Nazis. They feared the risk of a Jew winning an Olympic event in the name of Germany. They refused to recognise her stellar performance in the qualification rounds and eliminated her from the Olympic selection. The only explanation she receives is this letter. The head of the sports division of the Reich, who has chosen the Olympic team for the Games, was not able to select you for the team that will represent Germany. In light of your recent performances, you will without doubt be excluded from the team. Heil Hitler. They just said I was hurt and that I could not compete. And I'm sure I would have won, because when I was mad, I was good. One year later, in 1937, Gretel Bergmann left Germany for good. She would later become an athletic champion in the US, where she still lives today at 102 years old. The Nazis' crude manoeuvring was enough to manipulate the US, the UK and France into officially declaring themselves against the notion of a boycott. In the summer of 1936, a grand Nazi masquerade set forth. First step, their PR campaign uses images to create a parallel between the pure man, the Aryan race, and the ancient athletes of antiquity. Dozens of Greco-Roman statues are erected in the streets of the capital. And on July 20th, the Olympic torch is lit in the sacred woods of Olympia, before beginning the first relay in history on its way to Berlin. A cunning use of symbols in the service of Nazi propaganda. Once again, the relay of the Olympic torch was Carl Diem's idea. The decor was in place, and with it, Olympic values and Nazism had been cleverly fused as one. Hitler's games could now begin. At the end of July, 75,000 visitors arrived in Berlin, naively full of excitement for the events to come. Among them were 200 French athletes. The young Noël Vandernot included. They decided to come because, to them, the Olympic Games were apolitical. It was all just a grand celebration, after all. On the 1st of August, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was held at the Berlin Olympic Stadion. It was a big event. The Olympic Games were held in Berlin. It was full of Nazis flags and Olympic flags with rings. It was crowded with all the flags. It was packed. It was black. On the 1st of August, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games transformed itself into a gigantic celebration of Nazism. The Olympic ideals of peace had given way instead to a demonstration of German military power. The Hitler Youth, Hitler's paramilitary forces, SS officers and all types of security forces filed along Berlin streets under the eyes of thousands of onlookers from over 49 different countries. Hitler has something to celebrate. 100,000 people will fill his brand new monumental stadium. Around Hitler, the highest-ranking Nazi officers and representatives of Italian fascism, but also Karl Dean, the orchestrator behind the Games, and the president of the CIO, Henri de Baillé-Latour. Everyone was there. Hitler was non-stop. The furor was something. He threw his own fury. It was unparalleled. The athletes' parade. The German and Nazi flags were antonied by the crowd. A crowd that stood up to the arrival of the athletes. Not just those of the Reich, by the way. The American athletes, and particularly the French athletes, who made a strong impression. Because the French proved themselves to be incredibly naive. The delegation, led by their mascot, young Noël Vandernot, here to the right, hold their arms out in Hitler's direction. In their spirit, they thought they were doing the Olympic salute that was in use in previous Olympic Games, such as in Paris in 1924. But this gesture closely resembled a Nazi salute. The crowd, the Nazis, and the entire world interpreted this gesture as a sign of allegiance with the furor. Due to their naivety, France, Germany's long-time enemy, showed their submission in the face of Hitler. The only other athletes that saluted in this manner were from countries in support of the Reich, like Italy and Austria. You couldn't have a political meaning. Explicit or implicit. The Americans and the British didn't do the Olympic salute because they had been warned by their diplomats. They had seen the impact of the Olympic salute on the Nazi crowd and the use of this gesture by the regime. The order had been given not to do the Olympic salute at the Berlin Stadium, which was not the case for the French delegation. This opening ceremony, evoking the Nazis' glory, finished with the arrival of the Olympic torch carried in by the ideal Aryan athlete. This was a battle of images, and the Nazis used each Olympic event as a form of political confrontation. All of the German athletes wore swastikas on their uniforms. Any successes of the German team would have meant the death of the Nazis, but these were occasions to celebrate Nazi grandeur. Their flag was raised and their anthem filled the stadium, while the German athletes saluted their leader. To exhibit their power, the Nazis have yet another idea. They invented the first ranking board of nations, showing the number of Olympic medals earned per country, all in order to show off their highly trained athletes' medals. Wanting to be sure that his propaganda will be shown on a massive scale, Hitler employs a personal filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, who, with her 40 cameras and her record-breaking budget of 1.5 million Reichsmarks, produces The Gods of the Stadium, a major film evoking the glory of the Aryan athletes. These colossal games also attract 1,200 international journalists. 2,500 radio programmes are dedicated to the games across the world. But far from the stadium where the Olympics were taking place, the most important and subtle acts of propaganda were taking place. Josef Goebbels sought to impress the journalists and their other special guests with the utmost care. The Minister of Propaganda organises sumptuous parties, the most grandiose of which being an Italian night reception on Peacock Island, a romantic oasis in the heart of Berlin. The German capital became the centre of global activity. Kings, princes and all of Europe paid Berlin a visit. These are the very important people who have gathered here and are having a little feast. It's a way of entertaining the stay of all these people who give their opinions. During a fancy gala dinner at the Berlin Opera, where he had invited 1,200 reporters, Goebbels revealed his true intentions. Germany harbours only peaceful intentions. I ask you to revisit your impressions of National Socialism without judgement, in a real Olympic spirit. In the Olympic village, the 4,000 athletes were also used as propagandists for the new Germany. The Nazis also gave them a very privileged welcome. The athletes are so amazed that they call their Olympic victory a joke. One athlete among them, Jesse Owens, a young 22-year-old African-American and grandson of a slave, is even more surprised. He had known nothing but segregation in America and did not anticipate receiving the same treatment as the white athletes upon arriving at the Games. I think when they first arrived, they wanted to know where their rooms were, you know, because they thought that they were going to be placed in a different place than the white team, the white boys on the team. So when they found that they were equal, I mean, that's a heck of a thing, you know? When you know at home, it's not like that. And they all ate together. You know, it wasn't the white boys here, the black boys here. It was a team because they were the US Olympic team, and that's what they functioned as. But hidden behind this meticulously thought-out welcome, Hitler's regime remained ultra-racist, considering black people as being less than human. Yet this young sprinter will single-handedly halt Hitler's enormous propaganda machine. August 3rd, 1936, late afternoon. The entire stadium has their eyes fixed on the starting line for the 100-metre race, the king of all Olympic events. Even in his first strides, Jesse Owens had already left his adversaries in the dust. He won all the time. First of all, I think it was a surprise and amazing to most people. When he walked on the track, it was like just a roar. In just 10.3 seconds, captured by the world's cameras, the Nazis saw their perfect games start to slip away. And it wasn't over yet. Armed with his charismatic smile, Jesse Owens returned the next day to deliver the final punch. He was there to challenge this German jumper, Lutz Long, who was the current European record holder of the long jump. He was just the epitome of what Hitler believed of the Aryan race. He was blonde and handsome and tall and athletic and all of those things. And I think he was from a fairly wealthy family. But also he was a decent guy. As separated as these two men were, they had a secret bond that they shared in the stadium, under the eyes of Adolf Hitler. My father had fouled a number of times. And Lutz Long offered a suggestion for how to keep from fouling. And he put a towel just before the board so that he could see that if you step there, you won't foul. Thanks to the advice of his adversary, Jesse Owens was able to complete an incredible jump at 7.94 metres. He broke a world record. Lutz was the first to congratulate him. Day after day, Jesse Owens continued to make his mark on the Nazi Olympic Games. The following day, he also won the 200-metre race and later the 4x100 relay. You know, that was also because of the clearly visible light summer coats they had. Those were the observers of the NSDAP, the National Socialists, who were deployed in departments. I didn't believe that at all. Jesse Owens' victories were a bloody failure of all the racial theories proclaimed by the Third Reich, and this live in the eyes of the world. The world press followed the Olympic Games and glorified Jesse Owens. Hitler lost face because he felt that his Olympic team was going to, you know, just trance all over everyone. And that's why he left the stadium. In his head, he was a Negro. But officially, there was nothing Hitler could do to this champion. But behind the scenes, he orders the Gestapo to watch him closely. In this letter that Jesse Owens would never receive, he's asked to take advantage of the attention being paid to him to alert the world to the dangers of the Nazi regime. You will have the opportunity to be remembered by posterity not only as a great runner, but as a great man. If, remembering all the filthy abuse poured out by Herr Hitler and his gangsters over the years, you refuse to be crowned by him or any of his henchmen. Under high surveillance, the Games would continue without anyone putting into question the dictatorship in place. The four gold medals won by Jesse Owens had certainly made a mark, but it is Germany that finished as a major victor with 89 medals, far ahead of any other participating country. The 16th of August, at the closing ceremony, Henri de Baillé-Latour continues with relentlessly thanking Hitler. The tribute of our deep gratitude, we proclaim the closing of the 11th Olympic Games. The Olympic Games were very clearly a great success, which marked, we see it in the French press, in this case all the journalists who went to the Olympics, came back enthusiastic and completely dazzled by Berlin, Germany, Nazi Germany. On August 25th, the daily Parisian newspaper highlighted the unanimously acclaimed success of Hitler's lavish Games. On the same page, another article reports, without much fanfare, that Germany is in the middle of considerably reinforcing its army. He managed to anesthetize the international public opinion and the German public opinion. He managed to align his people on his name. The Games of 1936 had functioned as planned, as Hitler's sleight of hand. The world's eyes were fixed on these grandiose Olympics, while in reality, Hitler was planning his war strategy. Just three years later, the Nazi regime made a joke of their Olympic values of tolerance and peace between peoples, showing their true nature. Adolf Hitler unleashed the Second World War onto the world as his armies poured across Europe. Hitler's war strategy,